On a warm summer day, once the album was finished, Barbara, her husband, Daryl and John drove from New York city to the rural spot on the road about 40 miles outside of Philadelphia. The group arranged permission to take photos of the old restaurant but they thought that the session was incomplete without getting inside. And so they snuck in and Barbara started shooting, carefully tip-toeing around broken glass and tile. The guys squeezed then into a booth and the rest is album cover history (the interior was used as the back cover). The owner began screaming at them when he realized where they were, and they hightailed it out, hopping into their yellow car and speeding away back to New York City.[2]

Wilson shot the black-and-white 35mm images on an old Nikon SLR and then began a silkscreen process to create the surreal color imagery, using a different stencil for each hue and then hand-coloring the final piece. Atlantic Records bought the idea with one change, to re-do the neon tubing letters, which had all been done by hand. It was the only album cover Wilson ever did.[2]

The result is this classic cover.

Here’s evidence of Daryl and John’s life of crime. One could even call them hamburglars.

The gatefold shows the former Rosedale Diner looking, well, abandoned.

Here’s the whole damn album:

Share this:

Like this:

Related

4 thoughts on “Album Cover Art Wednesday: Abandoned Luncheonette”

A small correction. The diner was in Pottstown, Pa. , and not Pottsville. Pottstown is my home, and Daryl Hall is a native Pottstonian. Postville is best known as the home of D. G. Yuengling and Sons, America’s oldest brewery. Here endeth the lesson.

The diner was dumped in a field on Rt. 313 and 5th St. in Perkasie, Pa, which is where the photos were taken. It sat on the property of Virginia Duda for many years until it was scrapped when the property was sold. I know this from two source, Brian Utain, a mutual friend and former member of The Temptones; and also from Debbie P a relative of the Duda’s.